Colts Roll Past Texans

Eric Hartz

12/23/2007

With their playoff position locked and five starters out with injuries, the Indianapolis Colts figured to have their hands full against the up-and-coming Houston Texans Sunday. How did the Colts respond? With a near-perfect effort, routing the Texans, 38-15.

Houston marched down the field on its first possession and scored on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Sage Rosenfels to Kevin Walter to take a 7-0 lead.

That was pretty much the high point of the day for the Texans, who watched as the Colts rattled off 38 straight points to wrap up their 13th victory. Houston scored a late touchdown and two-point conversion to establish the final score.

Indianapolis scored 24 straight points to close the first half, then added touchdowns on its first two possessions of the second half to seal the victory.

The Colts won the turnover battle, intercepting Rosenfels three times in the game. Bob Sanders, Matt Giordano and Melvin Bullitt had the interceptions for the Colts, who are now +17 in takeaway-giveaway ratio this season.

Dallas Clark breaks a tackle.AP Photo/Michael Conroy

Offensively, Peyton Manning had a near-perfect day and compiled a quarterback rating of 132.3, completing 28-of-35 passes for 311 yards and three touchdowns.
Two of those touchdowns went to Dallas Clark, who established a new franchise record for tight end touchdowns with his 10th and 11th scoring grabs of the season. Clark ended the game with six catches for 60 yards and even carried the ball once on a fourth-down end around for 15 yards.

Manning's other touchdown pass went to Reggie Wayne, who added to his stellar season with 10 catches for 143 yards.

The Colts showed some improvement running the ball, gaining 120 yards on 31 attempts, good for a 3.9 average. Kenton Keith and Clifton Dawson each carried the ball 10 times for 60 and 21 yards, respectively.

The only down note for the Colts came in the form of injuries to Joseph Addai and Anthony Gonzalez. Addai, who saw his workload dramatically reduced after leaving the game with a back/shoulder injury, carried the ball just six carries for 26 yards. Gonzalez suffered a foot injury and had two catches for 22 yards before departing.